People have been predicting a lot for the successor to the BMW M3 Coupe, the BMW M4. Early numbers had power as high as 450. Power that would be linked to a manual or dual-clutch transmission. Rumor has it that none of this is true. UPDATE

Well, that didn't take long. After a grainy photo leaked onto the web last night, the full…
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The power thing doesn't really bother me. The last M3 put out 414 horsepower from its 4.0-liter V8, but it was still able to beat it's more powerful competitors from Mercedes and Audi in almost every situation. Power isn't as important as a well balanced chassis, and I'm confident BMW still knows what they're doing here. So 416 horsepower from a turbocharged inline six will be just fine by me.

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Leaving off a manual transmission is where I take a little umbrage. Dual clutch is fantastic, and I'm loving basically every paddle shift trans these days, but if Autoblog's source is to be believed, it will be the only option.

I feel like the M3/M4 are exceptions to that. They aren't so powerful that a manual isn't a viable option, they're for spirited driving on the road or track. You want to be really involved, and I think that means you want a manual gearbox.

The dual-clutch is probably the transmission I'd pick, but I will feel a little nostalgic about another stick shift going off into the sunset with nary a funeral.

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Perhaps BMW will do what they've done for the M5 and M6 and offer manual equipped M4s only to us in the states. And then we can brag about something we get that Europe doesn't have for once.

The M4 will supposedly debut at the Detroit Auto Show in January, so we'll see if this is all true then.